Academy Meets with Henan University Delegation on Creating Sports Programs in China

The United States Sports Academy and Henan University officials recently met to discuss the creation of sports programs in China as part of the physical education and sport department at the school, which is one of the oldest in the country.

Pictured from left to right are Audrey Liu, the Academy’s liaison in China, Yang Jun, president of Henan's College of Physical Education and Sport, Academy President and CEO Dr. Thomas P. Rosandich, and Hong Hao, vice president of the Henan college.

Henan, the Shaolin Temple and the Academy are working together to create a new sports education program. Henan University, which is one of the most prestigious universities in China and is celebrating its 100th anniversary, would provide the land for a new sports academy, while the Shaolin Temple would fund the endeavor. The Academy would be responsible for providing the academics.

“I thought our meetings were meaningful as we explored the many ways that we could and should work together,” says Academy President and CEO Dr. Thomas P. Rosandich. “It is clear that both of our universities have a desire to move forward across a very broad front, along with our mutual friends at the Shaolin Temple.”

Development of a sports program with Henan University started following the Academy’s work since 2006 with his Holiness Abbot Shi Yongxin, leader of the 400 million Chan Buddhists, and the Shaolin Temple to develop a course that introduces Shaolin philosophy and history to people online across the globe. That course, “The Philosophy of Shaolin Kung Fu,” which is based on a 1,500-year-old manuscript that the Abbot gave to the Academy during his visit to the Academy’s campus in November 2006, is available as a continuing education or bachelor’s course to students interested in learning more about Shaolin’s key tenets.

Henan’s Yang Jun, president of Henan’s physical education and sport college, and Hong Hao, vice president of the college, report that one of the interests would be in establishing a Shaolin Kung Fu program. In fact, at Yudo University in South Korea, four deans there who have Academy doctorates teach martial arts in such a program.

In addition, the Academy and Henan are working on other programs at the bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral levels. For example, the Academy could begin sending professors to Henan to teach Sports Management, which the Academy has done in more than 65 countries throughout the world.

The Academy is also currently working with both Zhengzhou University and Jack Guo of WorldTeam Sports on the development of other sport education programs or sports institutes in China.